Dr. Parsons's report to the Local Government Board on a recent outbreak of diphtheria at Queen Camel, in the Wincanton rural sanitary district, Somerset / [H. Franklin Parsons].

  • Parsons, H. Franklin (Henry Franklin), 1846-1913.
Date:
1888
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Dr. Parsons's report to the Local Government Board on a recent outbreak of diphtheria at Queen Camel, in the Wincanton rural sanitary district, Somerset / [H. Franklin Parsons]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Dr. Parsons’s Report to the Local Government Board on a recent Outbreak of Diphtheria at Queen Camel, in the Wincanton Rural Sanitary District, Somerset. George Buchanan, Medical Department, March 7 th, 1888. Ia the autumn of 1885 an outbreak of diphtheria occurred at Queen Camel and other places in the neighbourhood, and was inquired into by me for the Board in the following year, but the inquiry was conducted at a disadvantage on account of the length of time which had elapsed since the disease had occurred. Information having been received that diphtheria had again broken out at Queen Camel, I was directed by the Board to inquire into it while the circumstances were yet fresh, and I visited the place on January 30th and 31st, 1888. On putting myself in communication with Dr. Stockwell, Medical Officer of Health, and with Dr. Hurley of Queen Camel, under whose care the patients had come, I found that there had been up to that date nine cases; and two fresh ones just commencing were met with in the course of my visit; making 11 cases, two of which had been fatal. These cases had occurred in six house¬ holds, of which five were in the village street and one at an outlying farm. Queen Camel village, of which the population in 1881 was 542, occupies a low-lying situation, standing on the lias clay, which in part of the village is covered with gravel. It consists mainly of a single street, running north and south, with houses in rows on either side. At the northern end, where the church and school are, the houses are less regularly placed, and there are some cross lanes. The village is drained by stone sewers of very rough construction ; their bottom being formed of the bare earth; their walls of dry rubble masonry; and their cover in part by the flags of the pavement, through the chinks of which offensive effluvia can come up. The outfall is into a ditch near the north end of the village, which discharges into a brook called the river Cam. In the southern part of the main street there are two sewers, one on each side of the road, just in front of the houses. That on the west side of the road is just under the pavement; it drains about 20 houses, but does not extend the whole length of the street; at its lower end it joins the other sewer. The sewer on the east side, draining 30 houses on that side above its junction with the west sewer, and about 10 below the junction, is said to lie several feet below the surface in its northern and lower part, but higher up it is more superficial, and it crosses under the street to drain nine houses on the west side. Six houses on the east side of the street at the south end are LONDON: PRINTED FOR HER MAJESTY’S STATIONERY OFFICE, BY EYRE & SPOTTISWOODE, PRINTERS TO THE QUEEN’S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY. And to be purchased, either directly or through any Bookseller, from EYRE and SPOTTISWOODE, East Harding Street, Fleet Street, E.C.; or ADAM and CHARLES BLACK, 6, North Bridge, Edinburgh; or HODGES, FIGGIS, & Co., 104, Grafton Street, Dublin.' LIBRARY No. 23. 1888. Price Threepence.